Satellite Is My Co-Pilot on Fords of The Future

Researchers at Auburn University and Ford have teamed up to develop new accident-avoidance technology that allows satellites to communicate with a vehicle’s on-board electronic stability control (ESC) to prevent a crash.

Using GPS satellites, the system monitors a vehicle’s roll angle, sideslip and velocity from above in order to sense when a vehicle is about to exceed the limits of the laws of physics. That data could be used to improve the performance of a vehicle’s ESC, making it faster to recognize and even prevent potentially deadly situations such as rollovers or spinouts.

The idea that a mysterious, benevolent entity in the sky can protect drivers from harm should be good news to all those folks who have an altar’s worth of religious figurines on their dashboard, though we can see some privacy experts having concerns about a technology that can monitor your location and, in theory, stomp on the brakes.

According to Ford, the project’s major breakthrough is the coordination of data from GPS satellites and in-vehicle data sensors. Algorithms developed by the team at Auburn’s GPS and Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory allowed for the creation of predictive models for auto accidents that may be incorporated into future versions of Ford’s ESC software.

“A satellite orbiting the earth could someday prevent an auto accident,” Ford Chief Technical Officer Gerhard Schmidt said in a statement. “We applaud the Auburn team for these advancements and look forward to working together on the next phase of this research, including developing prototype vehicles.” According to Ford, the project is ready to move into the prototype phase.

The Auburn team was funded by a three-year, $120,000 grant from Ford’s University Research Program, and initial research findings will be presented this week at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics in San Antonio, Texas.

Photo: Flickr/cliff1066TM. Ford will use technology from GPS satellites to improve the performance of future vehicles’ stability control. A model of a GPS satellite is shown above.